Beating Hearts
by QuickStrike15
Summary: Blackarachnia and Silverbolt go to gather more sparks, but Obsidian and Stryka are out to destroy these star-crossed and star-burned out lovers. Fourth in the series.


"BEATING HEARTS"  
  
WRITTEN BY  
QUICKSTRIKE15  
(TIEANBRICE@AOL.COM)  
  
Silverbolt and Blackarachnia, in beast mode, arrive at their designated location.  
BLACKARACHNIA: "This must be the place."  
SILVERBOLT: "So barren and deserted. I can't believe Megatron did this all by himself. Some virus wiped out an entire race of people, and he's reaping the benefits from their deaths."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Okay, Silverbolt, keep in mind that we're here to save those people. We know Megatron better than anyone, and if we beat him once, we can beat him again."  
SILVERBOLT: "Oh, Megatron will be stopped, that I know in the core of my spark. As for saving our race, I can't be sure."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "What do you mean 'you can't be sure'? You have to be sure!"  
SILVERBOLT: "Well, I'm not!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "All of Cybertron is counting on us! If you're not sure of yourself, they can all kiss their lives and afterlives good-bye!"  
SILVERBOLT: "Look, I never signed on to this life to be a warrior. And now that the stakes are raised, I don't think I'm up to the challenge."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Okay, maybe you didn't sign on to be a warrior, but you sure as heck signed on to be a hero. That's in your mech fluid, Silverbolt. You exuded it everyday back on ancient Earth. You saved me from the Predacons...you saved me from myself. Everything I am today I owe to you. So don't tell me that's not who you are, 'cause I already know the truth."  
SILVERBOLT: "Why, Blackarachnia? Why are you making this so difficult?!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Because you're being so difficult, Silverbolt! You refuse to return to the way you were, despite everything everyone's said. You refuse to bend."  
SILVERBOLT: "Listen, I've told you all of this before. I need this edge, I need it to destroy Megatron!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Destroy Megatron, destroy Megatron, that's all I ever hear you talk about anymore! Why is your life so deeply rooted in Megatron?!"  
SILVERBOLT: "Because for a stretch of time, it literally was!" He turns his back on her.  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Jetstorm."  
SILVERBOLT: "I was part of Megatron's army. I was one of his loyal generals, ready to destroy the Maximals, and you, at the drop of a hat. I couldn't bring myself to stop. It's the strangest feeling, your spark being trapped inside someone's else body, yet at the same time, it's your own. To not be of your right mind."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "You felt you were going insane."  
SILVERBOLT: "Oh, I can assure you, I was already far past insane. There was nothing I could do! I had to fight, I was forced to fight, all for evil. And it wasn't just that I couldn't control myself, but it was that I felt I could. For the length of time I was a Vehicon, there were times when I actually...enjoyed it."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Silverbolt, look at me. Look at your good work. Like I said, everything I am is thanks to you. When I was a Predacon, I was of my right mind all along. And I chose to do the evil things I did. So you're up here punishing yourself for something you had as little control over as we did keeping Megatron from changing Cybertron like this?"  
SILVERBOLT: "That was different. You were reprogrammed to be evil. You were formatted as a Predacon."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "You can't reprogram a spark, Silverbolt. I had my agenda, and I fulfilled it. I didn't think there was saving for me, I didn't think I could be forgiven for my ill deeds. But you taught me something. You taught me that this Universe doesn't do anything but forgive. You only make mistakes to learn from them. And if you don't, you will. You and I, we were both in the same position. And now, we're both out of it. I'm not a Predacon, nor do I have any desire to be, and you're not a Vehicon, nor do you have any desire to be. We're saved, and now we have to return the favor to this Universe, and save it from Megatron."  
SILVERBOLT: "Your words make great sense, dark poison of my heart. But I just don't believe in them, I'm sorry."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "You're sorry? You're sorry? I've used up so much of my precious breath, just for you to squash the wisdom in my words?! No, Silverbolt, I'm sorry, sorry I ever let you back into my life. Sorry I ever brought you back!" Silverbolt stares blankly, as Blackarachnia stomps away fuming. Just then, a missile hits the ground near them. They are thrown down to the ground.  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Huh?!" She looks to find two vehicles.  
OBSIDIAN: "Ah, look what we've found, Maximals. Shall we terminate them, Stryka?"  
STRYKA: "Without prejudice."  
OBSIDIAN: "Very well, then. Obsidian, Devastate!"  
STRYKA: "Stryka, Obliterate!" They transform to robot mode.  
SILVERBOLT: "You won't defeat me that easily!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "It's time to return the favor!"  
SILVERBOLT: "I am transformed!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "I am transformed!" They transform to robot mode, and face off with Obsidian and Stryka.  
OBSIDIAN: "If you would just stay out of the way, you wouldn't be hurt as badly as you're about to be."  
SILVERBOLT: "I'm already familiar with the Vehicon brand of pain!" He tosses three eagle feathers at Obsidian, exploding on contact. Obsidian hits the ground, but lands on his hands. He throws a propeller at Silverbolt, and it injures his left arm.  
OBSIDIAN: "Did you really think I'd let you do that without a plan in the works?"  
SILVERBOLT: "And you call yourself an honorable knight of Cybertron."  
OBSIDIAN: "I in fact do not call myself an honorable knight, but a loyal servant."  
SILVERBOLT: "I know service. And if you're serving Megatron, you are not serving Cybertron!"  
OBSIDIAN: "The opinions of a guerrilla do not hinge on my decision making. I serve the ruler of Cybertron loyally, and that's all I need accomplish."  
SILVERBOLT: "Say what you will. The only person Megatron serves is himself." With his good arm, Silverbolt throws down some feathers, which explode, and leave a cloud of smoke. When Obsidian turns on his propellers and blows it away, Silverbolt is gone.  
OBSIDIAN: "Blast it! Next time I shoot first, and converse later."  
Blackarachnia runs from Stryka, as she litters the ground behind the spider with craters from her missiles. Eventually, Blackarachnia is chased into a corner.  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Have to get the upper leg here!"  
STRYKA: "It is too late for you, Maximal. There is nowhere left to go."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "But up." Using Matrix-style moves, Blackarachnia shimmies up the corner, flips nimbly from the walls, somersaults over Stryka, landing on her shoulders, and shocks her with her stinger legs. As she collapses, Blackarachnia flips off, onto her feet. "Never underestimate a spider's will to survive." Stryka reboots, and stands up. "No!"  
STRYKA: "I had my backup systems activated before our little tussle, sweetie. Never underestimate a strategist's wherewithal to think ahead." Stryka fires at missile at the ground in front of Blackarachnia, forcing the Maximal into the air. She hits the ground, where Silverbolt quickly finds her.  
SILVERBOLT: "Blackarachnia, the only way we can beat these fiends is by working together."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Right."  
SILVERBOLT: "So I'll distract them, while you hide."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "What?"  
SILVERBOLT: "I can handle it. Go!" He runs off, transforms to beast mode, and flies into the air. Stryka and Obsidian find him, and follow.  
BLACKARACHNIA: "What are you doing?" She transforms to beast mode, and scurries to look for a place to hide.  
Silverbolt flaps his wings at high speed, barely able to outrun Obsidian's engines.  
OBSIDIAN: "What's the matter, Maximal? Having trouble escaping the inevitable?"  
SILVERBOLT: "If you mean you mouth, then the answer is yes!" He takes a dive, and Obsidian follows. They shoot through buildings, barely avoiding crashing into them. Silverbolt tries every trick he's got to shake the Vehicon, but nothing works.  
OBSIDIAN: "It's not enough, bird! Your goose is as good as cooked!" Silverbolt flies into an alley, and shoots straight into the air. But as Obsidian follows, he hits something in the air, stopping him dead in his tracks. The obstruction becomes visible, and is a spider web. "Blast it!"  
STRYKA: "I've got him!" She shoots a missile, and it makes contact with Silverbolt's wing.  
SILVERBOLT: "Aaaah! Can't...fly!" He struggles, and makes a painful landing, which knocks him out. Stryka goes over to capture him, but is tripped up by more invisible webbing.  
STRYKA: "No!" Silverbolt is caught by a drag line, and reeled into a nearby manhole.  
  
***  
  
Silverbolt awakens from his battle-enduced slumber.  
SILVERBOLT: "What...what happened?"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "You took a hard hit in the wing. You won't be flying for a while."  
SILVERBOLT: "But...I have to--" He stands, and his wing cramps up. "Aaahh!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "No!" She goes over to help him. "You've got to take it easy." She formulates a web sling for Silverbolt's wing. "Patience. With your technorganic body, your beast mode should have that healed up in no time."  
SILVERBOLT: "But the Vehicons--"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Are out of the way for the moment. After I used a couple of my fancy web maneuvers, they decided to stick around inside the city. As long as we remain in beast mode, they won't find us down here."  
SILVERBOLT: "Is that at all honorable? To hide from the approaching foe?"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Hate to sound like Rattrap here, but sometimes you've got to protect your own hide. We can't possibly attack them at half-strength. We'd die out there."  
SILVERBOLT: "It would at least be an honorable death."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Okay, Silverbolt, you're seriously starting to tempt me into throwing you back out there to face the Vehicons! What is your problem?!"  
SILVERBOLT: "Megatron took every ounce of honor and justice I had! He made me fight for him, he blurred my vision of the hero within, and the enemy without. He switched the roles, and now I'm not sure which part I'm truly playing! I don't want to bother you and the other Maximals because I think you're all on the right track. I don't want to poison you from your calling."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Silverbolt...is that what this wall you put between us is all about? Listen. Like I said, I know what Megatron's control can feel like. I never even got a chance to know the side of good before Megatron turned me into his Predacon slave. But the more I saw all he had to offer me, the more I didn't want it. I severed my ties with Megatron myself, then you happened to come along, right at the right time, as if some kind of gift from the Matrix, and you changed me for keeps. I didn't know exactly what path I would end up taking until you cemented one for me. So it's not me who's gonna be the one to turn you around, you'll do it in your own good time, and it looks to me like you just did, by sharing those words with me. Besides, I'm way better at poisoning bots from their calling than you would ever be."  
SILVERBOLT: "You always know the right thing to say, my gift from the Matrix." Blackarachnia smiles.  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Now, we've got to find a way to get out of here without Obsidian and Stryka spotting us." She stares out of a sewer grate, and sees the Vehicons patrolling up top. "Man, easier said than done."  
SILVERBOLT: "I could go out and--"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "What'd I say before? You're not going anywhere with that wing in that condition."  
SILVERBOLT: "But I have to protect you!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "We have to protect each other, Silverbolt."  
SILVERBOLT: "Yes, you're right." Just then, they hear something.  
BLACKARACHNIA: "What is that?"  
SILVERBOLT: "I don't know." The sound gets louder.  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Wait a second! I know what that is!" She scurries toward the noise.  
SILVERBOLT: "Wait for me!" Silverbolt follows. Soon, they come up on four sparks hovering above an energy reservoir.  
BLACKARACHNIA: "I knew it! Sparks!"  
SILVERBOLT: "We actually found them!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "But that won't mean anything if we don't collect them. The Vehicons are due to detect these anytime now. I want you to scoop the sparks up, while I distract them outside."  
SILVERBOLT: "But you'll get hurt!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Not if you do your job right." She hands over the bag with the spark chambers. "Wish me luck." She crawls up the ladder to the surface.  
SILVERBOLT: "Good luck, my calypso flower."  
  
***  
  
Blackarachnia surfaces, and spots the Vehicons.  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Perfect." She slides the manhole cover back into place, so they don't find Silverbolt. "Hey, Sonny and Cher! I'm over here!"  
STRYKA: "It is one of the Maximals!"  
OBSIDIAN: "Attack at once!"  
STRYKA: "Stryka, Obliterate!"  
OBSIDIAN: "Obsidian, Devastate!" They transform to robot mode.  
BLACKARACHNIA: "This'll be fun. I am transformed!" She transforms to robot mode, and prepares to attack.  
OBSIDIAN: "A most ineffective strategy. Even if your comrade were to attack us from another angle, I'd sense his energy signature."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "What's say we forget him for now, and I slag the both of ya single-leggedly!" She charges toward them both, and makes a superior flip into the air. She then showers them with exploding eagle feathers.  
STRYKA: "What in the world?!"  
OBSIDIAN: "An uncalculated move!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Just a little present my comrade gave me!" She runs away, taunting them, and darts behind a building.  
OBSIDIAN: "A game of chase, is it?" He activates his shoulder propellers, and hovers after her comfortably. "You can't get away from me. Your foot speed is far inferior to my propellers and engine output." He flies toward an invisible web, but scans for it, and blasts it away. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Blackarachnia hops onto his back.  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Such a shame!" She stings him with her legs. He has trouble flying, and she jumps off as he falls to the ground.  
OBSIDIAN: "Blast it! Stryka, get her!" Stryka comes raging through the street, clomping toward Blackarachnia at a speed she's never seen her move before.  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Oh, boy!" She dashes away from the angered truck drone general, as she is about to be squashed by Stryka's giant feet. "Not good, not good, not good!" Stryka catches up, and stomps on Blackarachnia. The spider tries her best to divide the weight of Stryka's foot, and manages to hold it up. But the pressure begins to become too much.  
STRYKA: "Time for spider to go 'squash'!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "You messed with the wrong spider!" She bares down, and with all her might, pushes up, and knocks Stryka flat on her back. "That'll teach you not to mess with a black widow!"  
OBSIDIAN: "Believe me, when we're through, you won't be the widow!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Uh-oh." She runs from the two of them as they go after her together. "Didn't expect him to be up again so soon. Maybe this was a bad idea!" She runs into an alley. "Great!" Obsidian and Stryka follow.  
OBSIDIAN: "End of the line, arachnid!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "I don't think so!" She quickly scales the wall, and gets on the roof of one of the buildings. Obsidian flies after her, while Stryka digs into the wall with her claws in order to climb up.  
OBSIDIAN: "Only a temporary fix, my dear. Now you just have longer to fall!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Do you ever shut up?!" She dashes from building to building, nimbly hovering over to the alleyways. Obsidian begins to fire on her, with holes appearing wherever she tries to run. "On second thought, talk as much as you'd like!" Eventually, she runs right over to the last building. "No!"  
OBSIDIAN: "Ah, only one building to demolish now. This should be easy!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "I can't climb down. If he hits the foundation, the whole thing gonna came down on me!"  
OBSIDIAN: "Good-bye, my fair Maximal!" He takes aim at the building's foundation. Just then, Silverbolt swoops down and sends Obsidian right through a brick wall in the structure.  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Silverbolt?"  
SILVERBOLT: "Disappointed to see me?"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "But how are you flying? Your wing--"  
SILVERBOLT: "Completely healed with some of Cybertron's organic core liquid. I spotted it in the bag when I put the sparks away."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Now why didn't I think of that?"  
SILVERBOLT: "Because you were too busy giving what knowledge you had to someone who just didn't understand."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Well, I'm glad he does now. Come on, let's get out of here!"  
SILVERBOLT: "Not before we leave our little friend here a present." Stryka climbs up onto the rooftops, and spots Blackarachnia on Silverbolt's back as he flies away.  
STRYKA: "The other Maximal! Where did he come from?!"  
BLACKARACHNIA: "You might want to check on your buddy. He's not looking so good!"  
STRYKA: "What?!" Silverbolt flies off, as Stryka hurries over to her fallen friend. She finds Obsidian right where Silverbolt tackled him. "Sire, sire, please! Wake up!" Obsidian's operating systems come online.  
OBSIDIAN: "What? That bird! He did this! We must hurry, we don't want to lose them!" Obsidian fires up his engines, when Stryka spots something on his back.  
STRYKA: "Sir, no!" Obsidian looks on his back, and sees a whole handful of eagle feathers strapped to his engine with webbing.  
OBSIDIAN: "No!" The eagle feathers explode, sending the building to the ground, as it dismantles the Vehicon generals.  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Now how did you think of that?"  
SILVERBOLT: "Well, I knew unless we did something drastic, they wouldn't stop following us."  
BLACKARACHNIA: "Looks like you're a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for."  
SILVERBOLT: "I have to be, in order to benefit from your great wisdom." Blackarachnia smiles, as they fly away. 


End file.
